A few years ago, Jason Aiken had a respectable IT job with a large medical device company. However, with an undergraduate degree in speech communications, he gradually found that his upward mobility was limited.
“Despite the experience I had gained on the job, it seemed like my educational background was creating credibility issues around my technical skills,” Aiken says. “My manager at the time told me I would need to look at additional education if I wanted to have a chance to advance.”
When he heard about the option of pursuing a master's degree online, Aiken liked the flexibility it could provide. He looked carefully at several available choices before choosing Capella—largely because he was impressed with the university's blend of technical and business course work in the IT curriculum. Once he started taking classes, it didn't take long for him to feel he had made the right call.
“Capella made an amazing first impression with me,” Aiken said. “For example, I despised technical writing when I took it as an undergraduate student. However, when I took that first tech writing course online with Capella, the structure and feedback helped it all make a lot more sense.”
A second advantage to Aiken's online degree program was mobility. With less than a year to go before graduation, he had the opportunity to relocate to another state for a higher-level position. While a land-based graduate program would have forced him to choose between changing jobs and changing universities, his Capella education continued without interruption. Three years later, when Aiken moved to a nearby software company to become a senior IT consultant, he credited his Capella degree for the opportunity.
“When I was approached by my present employer, that degree—along with an online portfolio of my whole Capella program—helped me move to a role with a higher salary grade,” Aiken said. “Now, I'm in an IT leadership position where I can really help to drive success in our division.”
The return on Aiken's educational investment is compelling. Since starting his Capella program in 2003, he has doubled his income and moved into job levels he may never have reached without adding academic credentials in information technology. For those reasons, he has strong opinions about the quality of the Capella experience.
“Anytime a discussion of adult education comes up, I always speak well of Capella,” Aiken said. “It helped me get to where I am today.”